dewey



(No Model.)

M. W. DEWEY.

ELECTRIC SIGNALING APPARATUS. No. 395,959; Patented Jan. 8, 1889..

INVENTOR WITNESSES: flfiolwmw k 6 wjhywz 71 5?; ATTORNEYS UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MARK IV. DEWVEY, OF SYRACUSE, NEWV YORK, ASSIGNOR OF TlVO-THIRDS TO EMIL LAASS AND CHARLES H. DUELL, OF SAME PLACE.

ELECTRIC SIGNALING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 395,959, dated January 8, 1889.

Application filed A ril 13, 1888- Serial No. 270,589. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, MARK \V. DEWEY, of Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga, in the State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Electric Signaling Apparatus, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a full,'clear, and exact description.

My improvements relate to all signaling systems involving the employment of a central station or several receivingstations, which may be, for instance, fire-engine houses, and a series of public signal or alarm stations provided with circuit-breaking wheels necessary to be rotated in order to give the signal or alarm. These signal-stations or alarmboxes, as generally termed, involve clockwork or mechanism adapted to be rotated by springs or weights, and in all cases it is necessary before sending in an alarm to lift a weight or wind up a spring. Sometimes the apparatus is arranged so that several alarms may be given after one winding, but all, so far as my knowledge extends, have to be visited occasionally for the purpose of winding up the alarm mechanism. This occasions considerable delay in giving a signal in case the mechanism of a box has run down at the time the signal is to be given.

Another defect of the present system of fire-alarm is that many delays in giving alarms are caused. not only by the parties having keys to the alarm-boxes being unknown, but because they are often not available, or the box may be a considerable distance from the fire, and sometimes by the ignorance of parties first seeing the fire as to the proper course to pursue in giving an alarm, not knowing the location of the boxes or the operation of the same. It is also known that when the alarm-boxes are placed within buildings it frequently occurs that access thereto is temporarily obstructed by locked doors, causing a loss of time.

The object of my invention is to obviate these difficulties and to enable a public firealarm box to be operated and controlled at a distance, and thus economize in time in turning in an alarm, and also to sound the alarm a limited number of times; and to that end my invention consists, essentially, in employing in the alarm-box an electric motor for operating the circuit making and breaking mechanism and a stop for limiting the movement of said motor, as hereinafter fully described, and specifically set forth in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a fire-alarm box embodying my improvement as arranged for a closed circuit. Fig. 2 is a modification of the same with open circuit. Fig. 3 is a side view of the breakwheel shaft. Fig. 4 is a diagram view of a number of public alarm-stations having electric motors connected together with the generator at the central station.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A denotes a public alarm-box; B, the circuit-breaking wheel, which latter may be of any well-known form. This wheel has hitherto been operated by means of clock-work and either a weight or spring. In lieu of this latter, I employ an electric motor, C, of any suitable and well-known type, from which motor I transmit motion to the circuit-breaking wheel B by a suitable train of gears, rep resented at a a a".

On the shaft of the wheel B is rigidly secured a disk, 6, the periphery of which has a spiral contour termii'iating with an abrupt offset, 0, which constitutes a stop, which during the rotation of the said disk encounters a detent, D. This detent is of the form of a pivoted lever having affixed to it an arma-. ture, d, and operated by a magnet, I, as hereina'fter described.

The aforesaid motor and magnet are in an auxiliary circuit, 6 e, or branch of said circuit. Fig. 1 shows a closed auxiliary circuit, including the aforesaid electric motor and magnet inthe box, and extending to one or more sub-stations, 0 O 0, having keys 7: h h, and to a generator, L. The sub-stations referred to may be in buildings in the vicinity of the box, so as to allow the occupants of said buildings to give the alarm without leaving the building. In giving the alarm from one of said sub-stations the auxiliary circuit is broken by operating the key at said station. The magnet I being thereby demagnetized allows the armature which causes the detent I) to recede by means of a spring, f, and this movement throws the detent out of engagement with the stop-disk. l), and if the key 71 has been released by the operator at the sub-station the motor 0 will be set in motion and impart motion to the circuitbreaking wheel B and disk 7). The detent I) is at. the same time drawn toward the disk by the magnet I and rides on the periphery of the rotating disk until it encounters the stop 1:, when it arrests the movement of the disk and ot' the entire mechanism in the box.

In order to guard against the too quick reengagement of the detent with the stop 0 by a quick release ot' the key 71, I pivot on the shaft of the said disk an arm, 1', the free end of which rests normally on the detent, and when said detcnt is thrown out of engage ment therewith by the mz'ignet I, as aforesaid, the arm i 't'alls onto a stop, a, on the disk and is held there by a spring, I. This arm being under constant strain of the spring causes the said arm to quickly fall into path of the detent when thrown out, as aforesaid, and thus prevents the re-engagement ot' said detent with the stop C.

It is obvious that the stop-disk l1 maybe mounted on the shaft, of one of the gearwheels which transmits motion from the electric motor G to the circuitsbreaking wheel l3, and the detent extended accordingly.

Fig. 2 of the drawings shows an open auxiliary circuit, 6, including the .i'nagnet I, and connected with the sub-stations O O (I) and generator L, and a branch, e, of said circuit includes the electric motor 0. In this case, when the circuit is closed by operating one of the keys 71, the magnet I in the box is caused to attract its armature on the detent D, and thereby throws the detent out of engagement with the stop-disk Z1, and at the same time brings in contact with the stop-serew ta metallic spring, 2/, which is attached to but insul.-lted from the detent, said screw and spring, with the motor (I, being in the branch c of the main auxiliary circuit c, said branch being closed by the aforesaid contact of the spring a with the screw 2, and when closed the motor C set in motion and inmarts motion to the circuit-breaking wheel I3.

The detent, riding on the periphery of the disk I), which periphery is in this case concentric, causes the spring a to be maintained in contact with the screwt until the said disk has made a complete revolution, when it is arrested by the detent in the manner hereinbefore described.

Fig. =1 illustrates the manner of operating motors in a number of alarm-boxes by'one generator. A A A designate three of such alarm-boxes.

H represents the cont 'al station of the alarm system, at which station the generator is 10- catcd. The auxiliary circuit extends from said generator successively through the electric motors in the alarm-boxes. In these boxes the motors O are under the influence of a constant current through the auxiliary circuit, and the alarm mechanism is restrained from moving by the detent I), held normally in engagement with the stop 0. At each box a branch, e, of the auxiliary circuit, incltuling the magnet I, extends to the different substations O (i), where ground-colnlection can be made by suitable keys. .iy making such ground-connection a portion of the current through the auxiliary circuit e is caused to pass through the magnet I, which, by the attraction of its armature, throws the detent I) out of engagement with the stop C, and thus allows the alarm mechanism to be moved by the motor The motor-supply circuit is supposed to be grounded at the central otlice, ll,

branches are shown grounded.

In some cases it maybe necessary to place a resistanm, r, in the branch e, for the purpose of preventing too much current [lowing to ground. Each box is to be provided with an individual key 71 to operate the electric motor at the box.

I do not limit myself to the use of manipulative keys at the sub-stations, as it is obvious that thermostats N maybe arranged at said stations to automatically operate the described electric magnetic alarm mechanism in the alarm-box.

It is obvious that my invention is applicable to police signaling systems, and in fact. to nearly all classes of electric signaling systems. Neither do I wish to be limited to the specific form of emistruction shown in the drawings, as it may be readily seen that any signal-box in which the circuit making and breaking mechanism is employed may be operated and controlled by the auxiliary circuit and electric motor, with a suitable detent: tor stop 'iing the motion of the mechanism inthe box at the proper time.

\Vhat I claim as my invention is i]. In an electric-alarm system, the combination, with the transmitting-instrument, of an auxiliary circuit and an electro-motor in said circuit and connected with the transmitting-instrlnnent to operate the same, and a stop to limit the movement of said motor, as set Forth.

2. In combination with a main circuit and a public alarm-box in said circuit, a circuit breaking mechanism in said box, an auxiliary circuit, and an electric motor connected with the latter circuit and adapted to move said circuit-breaking mechanism, and a stop arranged to limit the movement of said motor, substantially as set forth.

3. In combination with a main circuit and a public alarm-box in said circuit, a circuitbreaking mechanism, an auxiliary circuit, a detont controlled by an electro-magnet in the auxiliary circuit for restraining and relcas in g the movement of the main-circuit breaking mechanism, and an electric motor in the auxiliary circuit adapted to operate said mechanism, whereby the loss of time and expense of manual labor of whaling up said mechan ism are dispensed with, substantially as set forth.

4. In combination with the main circuit and an electric-alarm. box in said circuit, having a circuit-breaking wheel, an auxiliary circuit, an electric motor connected with said circuit and adapted to rotate said breaking-wheel, a detent controlled by an electro-inagnet in the auxiliary circuit and adapted to stop and release the motion of the breaking-wheel, and keys or equivalent devices for controlling the current of the auxiliary circuit, substantially as described and shown.

5. I11 an electric signaling system comprising a plurality of signaling-boxes, each having a circuit-breaking wheel, an electric inotor within each of said boxes connected with and adapted to rotate said breaking-wheels, a detent adapted to engage and release the breaking-wheel, a magnet for operating said detent, an auxiliary circuit extending from a generator successively to the electric motors of the respective boxes, branches extending from said circuit to substations in the neighborhood of the boxes, and return-paths for the branches to the generator, each branch including the magnet in one of the boxes, and keys or devices at said sub-stations for controlling the current through said branch and thereby releasing and operating the aforesaid electric motor and breaking-wheel or restraining the same, substantially as described and shown.

MARK \V. DElVEY. [L.s-.]

\Vitnesses 5 H. M SEAMANS, C. L. BENDIXON. 

